Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic: Chapter III – The Elder Kingdoms

Runes of Magic is a free to play MMO by a Taiwanese company called Runewaker Entertainment.

Straight off, let’s get the World of Warcraft comparison dealt with:

Yes, it’s a fantasy world MMO.

Yes, it looks like WOW and has a similar questing structure.

Yes, the controls are pretty much identical.

Levelling up is handled slightly differently, though. You are attributed talent points (TP’s) which you have to use to upgrade skills. Unlike WOW’s 1 talent point per skill level, ROM uses variable points, this will mean you can upgrade multiple skills at any one time, allowing you to make pretty unique talent builds.

There are 8 classes and 2 races to choose from, the character models follow closely on from WOW’s current selection. You can also play in a roleplay (RP), player versus environment (PVE) and player versus player (PVP) world, the latter of which I prefer, as there is nothing more satisfying than sneaking up behind someone who is happily questing away and ruining their day.

However, ROM has a few things going for it that make it stand out from the usual WOW clones that pop up in the MMO world.

First off is the marketplace. The marketplace has everything available to you that you would need to progress in the game, weapons, armour, mounts and other stuff like experience boosting potions. All of these things are available via micro transactions. Now I like this, ultimately if you and your friends are having a real hard time completing an instance or a particular quest, you can just drop a few pounds and rent some better gear to get ahead, which I think makes much more sense than having to go online to a shady gold farming site and buy gold in WOW (which of course none of us would ever consider doing). This practice is more commonly known as real money trading (RMT) which is becoming more and more popular in MMOs.

Second is the ability to find or buy experience boosters, these are potions which I’ve found to be freely available while roaming around putting the boot/axe/sword into the local wildlife. Some of these boost your main experience points, others boost your talent points by up to 50%, which in my experience of MMOs is a pretty unique feature.

This game is pretty fun to play. I liked that most of the quests you have are assigned around the same areas, making it possible for you to round up a load of them from the local immobile townsfolk and head out to complete 10 or 12 in one shot. It makes levelling up quick and far from dull.

You’re probably still thinking, ‘This is a free MMO, how good can it be?’ I was on the same train of thought when I started playing, and while the game still has its flaws, it’s an exceptionally well put together MMO and gets you to question if you always do get what you pay for, because I’ve purchased a lot of MMOs on day one and ROM has been on par with the majority of them.